1. The first container school created by
Safeducate, the education and
training arm of Safexpress, was
unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi at theVigyan Bhawan, New Delhi
on July 15, 2015 while presenting
his ‘Skill India’ pro-
gramme, under which,
the government intends
to skill 40.2 crore
people by 2022.
Safeducate has
come up with an
extremely innovative
model for training peo-
ple by joining four con-
tainers together. The
containers, refurbished and recycled,
for developing school structure
were earlier being used for
logistics purposes.
The first school has a training
capacity of 189 students per month,
with residential facility for 23 students
and includes three classrooms, com-
puter lab, activity area, recreation
area, library and staff offices.
Moreover, these containers are like
lego bricks, allowing this institution to
have a flexible and scalable model,
which can be easily replicated in any
other location.The community out-
reach of Safeducate could help the
current government provide quality
education and skilled training to the
remotest corners in the country.
Inaugurating the Safeducate
Container School, Rajiv Pratap
Rudy, Minister of State for Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship,
Government of India said,
“Safeducate has introduced an
innovation, which will revolutionise
skill training in the country. This
unique training platform will definitely
make a significant difference at the
grass root level.”
Showcasing the container
school, Divya Jain, Founder & CEO,
Safeducate said, “We have created
the Safeducate container schools with
a professional look and feel. These
are equipped with all amenities pres-
ent in a regular school and
will provide Safeducate the
ability to conduct trainings at
any location across India.
This school can be set up
anywhere in a short time,
with just the availability
of land and electricity
connection.The educational
format and structure of
these schools is such
that each district in the country
will have the same level of access to
quality education.”
Congratulating Safeducate
on launching India’s first Container
School, Dilip Chenoy, Managing
Director & CEO, National
Skill Development Corporation
(NSDC) said, “There are
massive skill gaps prevalent in
the industry today. The chain of
container schools launched by
Safeducate will hugely help in bridg-
ing these skill gaps. These schools
will hugely help in increasing the
employment opportunities for the
rural youth of the country.”
Logistics as a primary career option
ACADEMY36 CARGOTALK AUGUST 2015
Bird Academy organised an
interactive session with
Sanjiv Edward, Chairman, The
International Air Cargo Association
(TIACA) for its students to explain the
nitty-gritty of the logistics sector.
Edward shared the stage with TV
Narayanan, HOD, Bird Academy &
Chief Instructor DGR and Global
AVSEC Instructor, IATA; VK Bhatia,
Vice President – e-Cargo, Bird
Group; Anil Malhotra, Director,
Transmec Group and B M Singh,
Director, Silk Route Logistics.
Bhatia stressed upon few
critical areas such as single
point contact, EDI (Electronic
Data Interchange)
and to see the
logistics industry
as a promising
profession.
Motivating
the students,
Edward said, “It’s
been a long jour-
ney and I would
like to reiterate that
the key to delivering quality product
is dedication and concentration.This
is the first time that an Indian has
taken the responsibility of an interna-
tional association (TIACA) and it is a
matter of pride for our country. And
responsibility comes with accounta-
bility. Since I am looking for a global
association with global agenda, my
focus will be on how I can use the
global organisation to integrate
world’s air cargo supply chain.”
He touched upon issues such
as non standardisation, lack of tech-
nology, to name a few. “If we look at
the sea, we can see the drastic
change in the shipping industry;
few years back
consignment
from India to
America used to
take 45 days and
now it takes 21
days. The regret
is we use the
fastest mode of
transport, that is, air but lose
efficiency on ground.”
Edward shares the growth
history of Delhi airport to showcase
the importance of concentration,
determination and hard work
to achieve success in life. While
sharing the struggle and achieve-
ments of Delhi airport, he said,
“When we took over the Delhi airport,
we were just operators, but
we thought of doing something
different and got it privatised. We
decided to set our targets high to
exist among the best in the world.We
started looking at other possibilities
around the world and took an
example of global hubs such as
Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, US,
to name a few.”
“With this, we realised what is
needed to create a hub of operational
excellence, good network in the
air and on the ground, and good
infrastructure. Six years down the
line, things started improving.
Further, to cut down costs and to
reduce time, we looked at connectiv-
ity. From an airport perspective, we
started informing airlines about the
concept of being connected with
manufacturing hubs that is Air Freight
Station (AFS).
With flow of goods, flow of
information is equally important, thus
both need to be coordinated.
If we have fast flow of goods but
information is not reaching on time
then it’s a waste. Hence the good
IT system is required,” he explained.
“We had a clear vision to be
the number one airport in India.
In 2010, we put the strategy
in place and now we are the
number one airport in the country,”
Edward added.
CT BUREAU
Bird Academy invited Sanjiv Edward, Chairman, TIACA, to interact with students of the academy to know more
about the challenges and opportunities of the air cargo sector.
First school in a container: Safeducate
CT BUREAU
With an aim to provide skill-based education at minimal costs to all parts of the country, Safeducate has come
up with an innovative plan of recycling scrap containers and using them as schools. The first container school
was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the ‘Skill India’ programme.